Woodland, Moor, and Stream. (Smith and Elder.)—This is a book
full of keen and loving appreciation of Nature. The writer is a "skilled workman," as the editor describes him, "who has made the study of wild creatures in their native haunts the passion of his life and the exclusive occupation of his days." He
is not averse to sport, for he tells some interesting anecdotes of angling; but his interest lies in the observation of the life of wild creatures rather than, if we may so put it, in the compassing of their death. Very interesting are the stories that he tells and the pictures that he draws. The old village church where the white owls formed a recognised part of the congregation (" more than once," says the writer, "have I seen one gravely considering the Ten Commandments "), the haunts of the otter, the marshes of South-Eastern England, are among the places which the reader is made to realise with uncommon distinctness. Among its curious stories is that of the Lichfield rooks. Bishop Selwyn left the suburban palace which his predecessor had inhabited, and came back to live in his cathedral city. And the very year of his return was signalised by the coming back of the rooks to the trees in the Cathedral Close which they had deserted long before. (The
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